St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1887-04-30
SEWlNG-WOMEN'S WAGES.
The Low Wages Paid by Clothing Manu-
facturers in Large Cities.

facturers in Large Cities.
Yes, we have been cut down shame
Iully in the past soIr or five years, and
am not able to make living alone now"
said an old lady that lives in the fifth floor
OF Third street tenement house to a
Cincinnati Times reporter the other morn
ing. She has been making pants and
vests for wholesale clothiers here for
fifteen years, as she has been a widow for
anumber of years and by hard work has
succeeded in raising three daughters and
two sons.
''You still work at the businessn asked
the reporter.
''Oh, yes, for get along better than
used to- as my girls are now old enough to
help me, but if 1 hal to do it alone, as
did when we were. paid more, I would be
swampec No one of us could make a liv-
ing now, but it costs no more to keep us
now than formerly, and the four of us
make, and manage to get along very we'll. +"
what prices are you getting now!'
''Here are some pants" and the old lady
with locks that have long since told the
story of life's winter by their wilderness,
handed the writer pair of jeans pants Of
the cheapest quality, ''that l am making
for one dollar a dozen, or eight and one
third cents apiece
"How many pairs of these can you make
in day by working ten hours:'
Not moro than three pairs to save nv
soul, and you can readily see that no fami-
ly like mine could exist on twenty-five
cents day. But want to be fair with
you When l was young l expect could
make five or six pairs if l worked as fast
as I could and did nothing else, but in
those days l got s. 50 and s. a dozen for
the same work. Now my three girls and
myself, by denying them every priv
,ilege of going out and all of us living as
slaves we are able to make about sic
week, as we turn out about $50 pairs, or
twelve dozen, every Saturday night"
Are these the lowest prices you know
off,"
No, know of a woman that is making
about the same quality of work as this
and is only getting ninety cents for a
dozen pairs.''
"Dltferent firms may vary in prices:'
Eyes, they do. There Is all the differ
ence in the world in the firm one works
for. Now, know of some that will find
fault with every thing and will put off
paying their sewing women as long as
possible Why, know of one firm that
would not allow the women that worked
for them to enter their store at the public
entrance. Now, | just come out fiat
footed and told him that if l wasn't good
enough to walk in the same door other
people did 1 wasn't good enough to sew
on his pants"
''In which is there the most money
coats, pants or vests?"
i can do better with pants Vests
would do very well if it was not for the
button-holes to make in them. But coats,
there is mighty little in them. I tell you.
There is good deal of work to make
coats. How people can sew them for
dollar a dozen I can't UNDERESTIMATE
"'Don't the manufacturers pay according
to the amount Of work?'
''No, they seem to pay according to the
quality of the goods, but they require just
as good and as much work on the cheap
goods as on the more expensive?"
'sThen prices are getting lower all the
time?'
Eyes, for work that we used to get 50,
q. 25, $3.50 and s. we now get from % cents
to S1.75.